[CTC] Democrats want NAFTA accord with USTR in writing before moving forward

Fri Nov 15 09:09:30 PST 2019

Democrats want USMCA accord with USTR in writing before moving forward
Inside US Trade, November 14, 2019 at 8:26 PM

Key House Democrats negotiating outstanding U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement concerns with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative are waiting for administration officials to put their agreements in writing before moving forward, they said on Thursday.

A group of nine House Democrats assigned by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) earlier this year have been working with USTR Robert Lighthizer to resolve the caucus’ concerns with USMCA’s labor, environmental, pharmaceutical and enforceability provisions. The administration has said it is waiting on Pelosi to request the USMCA implementing bill before sending it to the House.

Democrats at a caucus-wide meeting Thursday afternoon discussed the ongoing negotiations between the working group, which is led by House Ways & Means Committee Chair Richard Neal (D-MA). The working group and Pelosi met separately earlier on Thursday.

“We want the text” before the working group can make an announcement that a deal with USTR has been reached, Neal told reporters after the caucus meeting.

Neal said the two sides still had labor issues to sort out and added he would be sending Lighthizer a letter soon “outlining some of those issues.” Neal said he hoped to “get a pretty quick response” after that.

The enforceability of USMCA’s labor provisions remains one of the thorniest issues in the negotiations. Democrats and U.S. labor organizations worry Mexico will not properly implement recently passed labor reform laws called for in USMCA.

Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), a member of the working group leading labor talks with the administration, said “components” of an agreement finalized between the working group and USTR were “being drafted as we speak,” while House staffers continued to work with the agency on other areas that have not yet been resolved.

When the working group can announce a deal has been reached “is a matter of getting the agreement on paper, but it doesn’t have to be the exact implementation language,” Gomez told Inside U.S. Trade after the caucus meeting.

Others say they are holding out for the bill language.

“We would definitely have to see [a draft implementing bill]” before an agreement can be reached, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) told reporters after the caucus meeting.

Schakowsky is leading pharmaceutical discussions with USTR. She said verbal agreements had not yet been made on all pharmaceutical-related issues.

“We just have seen nothing written yet and a deal is just air unless you’ve seen something in writing,” Schakowsky said. “My focus has been biologics and pharmaceuticals and it seems like things are moving in the right direction, but I certainly could never say we have a good deal without seeing it.”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), a member of the working group who is focusing on the enforceability of the deal, said the group was waiting to hear back from USTR on the concerns it has outlined “many, many times.”

“They will get back to us on the issues that we have been talking about and until that is resolved ... we will continue to talk,” DeLauro said.

Neal and Lighthizer spoke on the phone Thursday. As of Thursday night, no meeting between the working group and Lighthizer had been scheduled. USMCA advocates have been pushing for the deal to be voted on before Congress leaves for Thanksgiving. There are six legislative days left before then. Pelosi on Thursday said <https://insidetrade.com/node/167635> a deal was “imminent.”

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), a staunch USMCA advocate, told reporters after the meeting that he hoped to see a USMCA vote during the first or second week of December.

“If labor would say that they’re accepting of the agreements that we’ve been pushing in the working group, you can certainly speed it up,” Neal said in response to Cuellar’s timing ambitions. “At the same time, you have to make sure you have a broad, broad alliance of labor. We think that Rich Trumka” – the head of the AFL-CIO – “is really important to this.”

Cuellar said it was “very refreshing” to hear from “a lot of freshmen … from urban areas and rural areas” who he said called for a vote at the meeting on Thursday. The large group of first-term lawmakers is seen by the administration as a vital base of support for USMCA. Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Martha Bárcena has said <https://insidetrade.com/node/167598> the embassy is targeting first-term lawmakers in USMCA meetings on Capitol Hill.

“This was one of the most refreshing meetings I’ve had because we heard from freshmen from different parts and they said ‘Hey, we want a vote. We want to go home and take something home to the American public,” Cuellar said.

Not all first-term lawmakers were in a rush, however.

“If in March or April – I’m not saying we’re waiting – but if in March or April there was a deal that we really thought was great, we’d pass it then,” Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI), a freshman Democrat who worked for the AFL-CIO for more than 10 years, told Inside U.S. Trade after the caucus meeting.

Levin in September sent the working group and Pelosi <https://insidetrade.com/node/167392> an enforcement proposal that would require that Mexico take certain actions before ratification.

Levin called the working group “unprecedented and really a fantastic thing” because “it is representative of the caucus” and the group is “tackling all the major issues.”

“Basically, until the administration gives us in writing what all the answers to our questions on the provisions are, we don’t have anything yet. But they’re working super hard on it,” Levin said.

“Those who are anxious just to move for something need to think about the necessity for getting it right,” Schakowsky said. “There’s a feeling of urgency among some of our members and I just want them to consider the big picture.”

Schakowsky said she did not think Neal would move forward with USMCA without getting the nod from her and DeLauro, noting that Pelosi had been working to bring “all the right stakeholders” into the process, including labor advocates, “to make sure this is the kind of deal we can all be proud of.” – Maria Curi (mcuri at iwpnews.com <mailto:mcuri at iwpnews.com>)

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

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